Unity Monthly Meeting is formed

Unity Monthly Meeting is being revived by the Ujima Friends Peace Center. It is located in an historic structure that dates back dates to 1775 and is the oldest known Quaker-related meeting house in Philadelphia. Its history includes its role as an underground railroad sight and one of the few locations at which enslaved people were allowed to be buried.

PASHI Gets News Coverage

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Phillys major newspaper outlet, provided several stories featuring the Pan African Sister’s Health Initiative (PASHI) operating at the Center. The reporters were particularly impressed with the spirit of warmth and community as elders taught young people sewing skills while making reusable menstrual pads for handy hygiene kits for young women in Africa and the Caribbean. Volunteers show off their cooking skills by bringing their favorite dishes pot-luck style, to the festive atmosphere. One day a week, the volunteers use the Center’s sewing machines to work on their own projects including clothing repairs and making personal outfits for special occasions.

SEE HERE: Dozens of Black women in Philly gather weekly to sew reusable period pads for girls in Africa and beyond

Dozens of Black women in Philly gather weekly to sew reusable period pads for girls in Africa and beyond A group of retired Black women in Philly, many already skilled quilters and artists, gather weekly to sew period pads for girls in Africa. Along the way, they’ve also built a community here.

World Plenary Meeting 2024

Members of the Ujima Friends Peace Center, Ayesha Imani and Phil Lord, attended the FWCC World Plenary Meeting on behalf of the Peace Center and Ujima Monthly Meeting. Around 500 Quakers from 53 countries gathered in business, worship and fellowship at the World Plenary Meeting in Johannesburg and online.

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Participants enjoyed 75 sessions (and well over a hundred including those held in local hubs that joined online). In one of the final sessions, discernment from the three thematic streams—ubuntu, care for creation, and healing and repairing relationships in light of historic and continuing injustice—was woven carefully together. See the Gathering Epistle Here .

Summer Freedom School 2024

Once again, the Ujima Friends Peace Center provided a summer of travel, reading and outdoor activities for young people. More than 50 young people participated as counselors and students group sharing and discussions at Quaker schools, farms and meeting houses in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs.

The Peace Center Hosts HealYourLovePeriod.

Participants took off their shoes and lied on their backs on a circle of yoga mats as they were guided through breathwork, sound healing, meditation and group sharing by instructors Darren and Gloria Haygood from Heal Your Love Period. Darren and Gloria recently became members of the Peace Center, although they have been practicing this healing ministry in Philadelphia and with groups all around the country for years, bringing relief and healing to people burdened by the stress of their everyday lives.

Ujima Friends Peace Center Annual Kwanzaa Celebration tradition continues.

On the evening of Ujima (December 28), Ujima Friends Peace Center returned to hosting its Kwanzaa Celebration in-person.  Ujima has had a Kwanzaa celebration every year since its inception in 2017.  COVID caused the 3 celebrations to be virtual until last year when it was held in person for the first time in a while. Last year the Center honored organizations that have lent support to our ministries.  They included the Eastern Stars of Pennsylvania, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School, The Center for Returning Citizens, and our own Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative.  This year’s celebration was a little smaller but no less enthusiastic as it was held at the Center itself with drumming and singing and sharing recollections of loved ones in our personal lives who have passed on.

Food Give-Away Goes Indoors

As the temperatures dropped below freezing, the Peace Center decided to continue its food-give away program indoors. Twice each winter month, the program has provided more than a week’s worth of groceries to two hundred needy families lining up in the hallways of the Center. As food prices continue to soar and public food banks remain understocked, Ujima buys meats in bulk and volunteer packages it at the Center to save costs. The indoor program, while less visible from the street, enables to pick the kinds and quantities of food they need from smiling volunteers give love and respect from behind the tables while dance music plays in the background.

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Newsletter 2023

Our food pantry continues to serve families from North Philly and beyond every first and third Saturday from 8:00 am – 12 noon.  It’s wonderful how we are getting to know folks in the community.  What has been especially wonderful is the various people who come out to volunteer with us.  Come out and bring your family.  The couple of hours you spend will make you, your children, and/or grandchildren feel sooooooooooooooooooo good.  

Check out the table below to see how many families we have served in the last quarter of 2023.

	# Families	Total family members
October	420	1653
November	316	836
December	380	1599

Can we all say WOW!  It is amazing what the Spirit of God can do if we are willing to make ourselves available for the work.  Ujima may be small in number, but the Spirit is certainly using the Peace Center to do big things in the community.

Freedom School and the Youth Servant Leaders work

This summer our Ujima Freedom School program grew to include 40 middle, high school and college students in an outdoor experential social justice program.  Our “Friendly Spaces” program exposed our student to Quaker Spaces while they interogated the intersection between Quaker SPICES, the Nguzo Saba, and social justice concerns in the community.  This summer  our young people looked at issues in the community through the lens of LOVE.  Our servant leaders used bell hooks book, “All About Love” to think about issues related to self love, family love, love in the community and love in the world.  The Freedom school servant leaders were honored by the School District of Philadelphia for their intergenerational “Summer of Love”conference.

  All of this happened as our servant leaders spent time at Abington Meeting, George School, Salem Meeting, Solebury MM, and Taylor Wildlife Preserve.  In addition, several members of Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting read the book and attended the Summer of Love Conference.   Some of our summer servant leaders were involved in a 2 day mediation training at the Ujima Friends Peace Center this past November.   They will serve as peer mediators in their school.

PASHI:  Pan African Sisterhood Health Initiative

One of the most rewarding partnerships we have is our partnership with PASHI.    The Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative is a partnership between the Sankofa Artisan’s Guide and the Ujima Friends Peace Center. Since 2019, we have acquired grants for this project from Friends Foundation for Aging.  This project brings together elders and young people to make menstrual pads, birthing kits, and recently clothes for young children. PASHI has sent pads to over 23 countries in Africa and the Diaspora.   We are grateful for the participation of our members Lynda Black and Claudette Grimes in PASHI.  PASHI just had the privilege of traveling to Zimbabwe to present at an international conference on using art for social justice.  Our member Claudette Grimes was one of the PASHI Zimbassadors!

More to Come—